Diagnosis of the sources, types and cures of diseases is usually done by doctors, based on symptoms and on simple tests and observations. Because there are so many similar diseases, further diagnoses are often required to precisely differentiate them, especially for diseases with infectious or genetic roots, such as HIV, tuberculosis, hepatitis and human BRCA1 breast cancer. Conventionally, disease diagnosis has been carried out by techniques such as bacterial culture or antibody/antigen reactions (1). Recently, molecular techniques such as DNA restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis (RFLP) have become more widely used for the detection of mutation-intense diseases or for genotyping specific pathogenic microorganisms, e.g. tuberculosis (80). However, relatively large sample volumes have been necessary and significant manipulation of the sample may be required. The conventional techniques are costly, time consuming and very labor-intensive. These methods may not work when only small samples are available. Rapid, contemporaneous, or simultaneous testing for more than one organism, disease characteristic, or parameter may be impractical or impossible.
DNA chips have been developed for disease diagnosis, using an array of various DNA hybridization probes laid down onto a solid substrate (2-4, 72-76, 81-83). The probes in these techniques are designed to react only with specific target DNA fragments from chosen disease entities. Nevertheless, hundreds of microliters to a few milliliters of sample are required to cover the chip. A further drawback is that is that the diffusion constant of DNA fragments is small, on the order of ˜10−7 cm2/sec for 1-kbp DNA fragments (5). Thus, passive diffusion is an extremely slow process for large molecules such as DNA. Diffusion rates can be calculated using the equation:l=√{square root over (Dt)}, where l is diffusion length, D is the diffusion constant and t is time. If D is 10−7 cm2/s for a typical 1 kbp DNA and t is one hour (3600 seconds), the diffusion length l is 0.19 mm. It follows that for passive diffusion of the DNA, each hybridization spot can only cover an area of about 0.4 mm in diameter. Even after one day i.e., 24 hours, only target samples in an area of ˜2 mm in diameter can reach a specific probe to give a positive signal. Therefore, it takes a relatively long time for target DNA to be directed to complementary DNA probes. DNA may be lost or fail to find a matching probe, or will not do so in a reasonable time. PCR amplification may be needed to obtain enough DNA sample, which complicates the process and gives new sources of possible errors.
The invention addresses these and other problems. Microfluidic chips having elastomeric channels are provided, and an active flow of sample is delivered, for example by actively transporting a DNA or protein sample around a central loop within the device by a built-in (on-chip) peristaltic pump. The pumping action improves the efficiency of hybridization by directing the biological sample to it's target, which obviates the need for larger sample volumes and avoids the longer reaction times needed for passive devices (e.g. sample diffusion). A microfabricated or microfluidic device may be used to implement these techniques, for example to detect or separate labeled fragments. Microfluidic devices and related techniques have been described (11, 25 75-77, 84). These devices permit the manipulation, automatically if desired, of small volumes of biological samples on a small device, where reactions and diagnoses may be carried out.
The invention also encompasses the identification and separation of nucleic acid fragments by size, such as in sequencing of DNA or RNA. This is a widely used technique in many fields, including molecular biology, biotechnology, and medical diagnostics. The most frequently used conventional method for such separation is gel electrophoresis, in which different sized charged molecules are separated by their different rates of movement through a stationary gel under the influence of an electric current. Gel electrophoresis presents several disadvantages, however. The process can be time consuming, and resolution is typically about 10%. Efficiency and resolution decrease as the size of fragments increases; molecules larger than 40,000 base pairs are difficult to process, and those larger than 10 million base pairs cannot be distinguished.
Methods have been proposed for determination of the size of nucleic acid molecules based on the level of fluorescence emitted from molecules treated with a fluorescent dye. See Keller, et al., 1995 (42); Goodwin, et al., 1993 (39); Castro, et. al., 1993 (38); and Quake, et al., 1999 (70). Castro (38) describes the detection of individual molecules in samples containing either uniformly sized (48 Kbp) DNA molecules or a predetermined 1:1 ratio of molecules of two different sizes (48 Kbp and 24 Kbp). A resolution of approximately 12-15% was achieved between these two sizes. There is no discussion of sorting or isolating the differently sized molecules.
In order to provide a small diameter sample stream, Castro (38) uses a “sheath flow” technique wherein a sheath fluid hydrodynamically focuses the sample stream from 100 μm to 20 μm. This method requires that the radiation exciting the dye molecules, and the emitted fluorescence, must traverse the sheath fluid, leading to poor light collection efficiency and resolution problems caused by lack of uniformity. Specifically, this method results in a relatively poor signal-to-noise ratio of the collected fluorescence, leading to inaccuracies in the sizing of the DNA molecules.
Goodwin (39) mentions the sorting of fluorescently stained DNA molecules by flow cytometry. This method, employs costly and cumbersome equipment, and requires atomization of the nucleic acid solution into droplets, where each droplet contains at most one analyte molecule. Furthermore, the flow velocities required for successful sorting of DNA fragments were determined to be considerably slower than used in conventional flow cytometry, so the method would require adaptations to conventional equipment. Sorting a usable amount (e.g., 100 ng) of DNA using such equipment would take weeks, if not months, for a single run, and would generate inordinately large volumes of DNA solution requiring additional concentration and/or precipitation steps.
Quake (70) relates to a single molecule sizing microfabricated device (SMS) for sorting polynucleotides or particles by size, charge or other identifying characteristics, for example, characteristics that can be optically detected. The invention includes a fluorescence activated sorter (FAS), and methods for analyzing and sorting polynucleotides by measuring a signal produced by an optically-detectable (e.g., fluorescent, ultraviolet or color change) reporter associated with the molecules. These methods and microfabricated devices allow for high sensitivity, no cross-contamination, and lower cost than conventional gel techniques. In one embodiment of the invention, it has been discovered that devices of this kind can be advantageously designed for use in molecular fingerprinting applications, such as DNA fingerprinting.
These and other devices, including those which provide single molecule processing, can be used in combination with the loop channel and peristaltic pump devices of the invention. Likewise, other mechanisms of flow control, such as electroosmotics and electrophoresis, may be used in addition to or in combination with the loop channel, pump and valve arrangements described herein.
Given the current state of the art, it is desirable to provide new devices and methods for the rapid diagnosis of multiple diseases, e.g. by detecting the presence or absence of a particular gene. Such devices and methods may include analyzing and sorting differently sized nucleic acid or protein molecules with high resolution. It is likewise desirable to provide microfluidic chip designs having an architecture suitable for multiparameter analysis, including for example the rapid, contemporaneous or simultaneous evaluation of a sample in a battery of tests, for a plurality of characteristics, or against an array of targets or potential targets, for example by circulating sample in a loop channel for repeated exposure to a set of diagnostic probes.